


I'm Not Sure How This Works, But That's Not It

by ConflictingOpinions



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Also some feels, Came up with this at three, Fluff and Crack, Maybe - Freeform, Weird time travel mishaps, Winchesters are tired of Gabriel's shenanigans, With as many hours of sleep, it seemed like a good idea at the time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1957257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConflictingOpinions/pseuds/ConflictingOpinions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchesters have semi-retired from hunting. Dean's a mechanic. Sam is a local lawyer and has a son. Castiel drops in to visit from heaven now and again. Everything is going pretty well for them. Naturally, that's when everything goes to hell in a handbasket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Baby Names

**Author's Note:**

> So this one night I couldn't sleep, and this little beauty popped into my head. It was weird, it was stupid, and it wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to resist, but eventually I decided "Screw it, weirder things have shown up on this sight,". Enjoy the results of my sleep-deprived mind. Enjoy it.

Sam was a dad. Sure, they all knew it was gonna happen nine months in advance, but still. Sam was a _dad_. He had a _son_. He could barely wrap his head around it, even when he held his son to his chest.

He only wished Erin had made it through the birth to marvel at their child with him.

Dean held his nephew, smiling down at him. “He's beautiful Sammy.” He said, willfully ignoring the fact that this was most definitely a chick-flick moment.

“Thanks Dean.” Sam said.

“It's a shame that Erin died in childbirth.” Cas said bluntly. Dean glared at him.

“Yeah.” Sam choked, blinking back tears. He had really loved Erin, the same way he'd loved Jess. But Erin had died with a smile on her face, and their child had made it, which was more than Sam had ever thought he could hope for.

“What'cha gonna name him, Sammy?” Dean asked.

“I don't know, there's a lot of people to name him after.”

“Yeah, lotta people.” People we've found, people we've loved, people we've lost. Dean didn't say that last part. “Tell you what, though; no naming him after a girl.”

“Wouldn't dream of it,” Sam smirked, “And I'm not going to name him after you or me or Cas. That'd be too confusing.”

Sam lifted the infant from Dean's arms and cradled him gently. Dean considered them for a moment; a giant like Sam holding something so tiny so carefully wasn't something you see every day.

“How about Gabe?” Dean said. Not because he'd liked Gabriel very much, but the baby just didn't look like a Bobby or a John.

“Gabe?” Sam and Cas asked almost simultaneously.

“Yeah. Look at him. You can already tell he's gonna be a mischievous little shi-”

“Dean.  _Baby_ .” Sam interrupted. He wasn't going to let his son grow up with a potty mouth because of his uncle.

~o0o~

Sam was now at the store so Dean had to watch Gabe. It had been a few days since leaving the hospital, and Dean was getting better at helping take care of his nephew.

“What the hell is that smell?”

Well, better at most things.

“You didn't.” Dean said, eying the baby in his arms.

Dean lay Gabe down on the changing mat on the floor and began changing the baby's dirty diaper. As he was putting on the clean one, he noticed something odd: three freckles making a line of Gabe's inner left thigh. Why was that weird? Because Dean had the exact same freckles.

Sam got home a few minutes later with groceries. Dean had gotten Gabe to sleep and was reading a magazine while laying next to him. When he saw Sam, Dean carefully got up to go to his brother.

“Hey Sammy. Did you know that Gabe and I both have a line of freckles on our thighs?” Dean asked.

“No, Dean, I didn't. You have a line of freckles on your thigh?” Sam asked. Dean nodded.

“Yeah, just thought I'd tell you; seemed interesting.” Sam rolled his eye as Dean started to help him put away the groceries.

Suddenly, they heard the baby cry. Sam quickly went up to the bedroom and scooped his child up to calm him. Dean walked in behind him, then stopped when he saw an old “friend”.

“Gabriel?”

“Hey! Would you look at that. It's like a Gabe party!” The Archangel said, smiling. Gabe (the baby) saw Gabe (the angel) and slowly stopped crying. Gabe smiled down at the baby.

“Hold up,” said Dean, “A Gabe party?”

“Yeah.” Gabriel pointed to himself, the baby, and Dean. “Gabe, Gabe, Gabe.”

Dean looked very confused. “My name is Dean, don't you know- Wait. Aren't you supposed to be dead?”

“Well, it's been fun talking with you boys. Bye.” And Gabriel poofed away.

“Gabriel! Get your feathery ass back here!” Dean yelled, then looked between Gabe and Sam. “Sorry.”

Gabriel reappeared. “What?”

“Wanna explain what you're talking about?”

“Sorry,” Gabriel replied, “Can't say anything.”

Dean glared at the angel. “Listen here, you son of a -” he paused when Sam glared at him, “Listen, everything has just gotten better for us and now you show up and start spitting out nonsense. Tell us what you're talking about.”

Gabriel suddenly looked very serious. “Look, Dean. You may think that everything's all fine and dandy, but you're wrong. That's all I can say.” He left again, leaving the Winchesters to think about what he said.


	2. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot twists happen and time travel ensues.

Three days. It had been three days since Gabriel had shown up, and they were no closer to deciphering what he'd meant. Of course, Dean had been focusing on trying to figure out how Gabriel was alive. Sam, however, chalked it up to Gabriel using his Trickster abilities, and spent his time worrying about what his son had to do with Gabriel's warning. He'd been coming up with theories constantly, each one more troublesome and unlikely than the last.

Sam was currently sitting in the library with Gabe asleep in his arms. He thanked whatever gods were listening. Gabe had slept maybe three hours at best, which meant, according to all known laws of parenthood, that Sam slept even less. Presently, he was running on four cups of coffee and sheer force of will.

Sam looked down at the infant in his arms, still not fully believing that Gabe existed. If it was a dream, though, he didn't want to wake up. Lack of sleep and diaper changes be damned, this was the happiest he'd been for a long while. He stroked the blond tufts of hair on Gabe's head while his son dozed. Sam grinned at Gabe's tiny hand curled tightly around his finger, and the spray of freckles across his son's nose.

Dean was smirking at the mismatched pair from across the room. The scene was so incredibly sappy, Sam knew. He was gonna get teased for it later, but at the moment he didn't care.

“You want me to hold him while you stretch your freaky-long legs?” Dean asked.

Sam sighed. “Alright, but if he wakes up, _you're_ dealing with it.

Dean nodded. It was fair enough. Sam carefully stood and passed Gabe to Dean, holding his breath and expecting the baby to wake up in the process. He was relieved when Gabe remained asleep. Sam's knees creaked as he began to walk away. Man, his legs were stiff. When he came to the doorway, he glanced over his shoulder at his brother and his son.

Gabe looked so much more like Erin than he did Sam. And now, looking at the two of them together, someone could easily mistake Gabe as _Dean's_ – wait. Blond hair, green eyes, the freckles on his thigh, just like Dean (supposedly)... No. No way, no how. But it made sense, which was truly terrifying. Sam wasn't tired anymore.

He walked back into the room, gaping at Dean and Gabe. “What's up Sammy?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Gabriel,” Sam said, struggling to keep his voice steady, “You need to get down here _right now_.”

Suddenly, there was an Archangel in their library.

“Well, well, Sasquatch. Looks like someone figured it out.” Gabriel drawled.

“He's my son,” Sam muttered weakly, “He's my son. Gabriel, how is that even possible?”

“Alright, I know this is a lot to take in, but Sam, you need to try and stay calm...”

“Hey, someone wanna tell me what's going on?” Dean snapped as Gabe started squirming in his arms. Sam stared at the two of them uneasily.

“I suggest you take a seat before I say, Dean-o,” Gabriel said. Dean grumbled, but sat down where Sam had been just a minute before, and Sam shakily joined him on the couch. Dean looked at him expectantly, but Sam refused to meet his eyes, instead holding out his arms to take a fussy Gabe.

“Alright,” Gabriel said, “I'm gonna put this really simply. Dean, you are Gabe. Sam is your father.”

Dean burst out laughing, but when he caught Sam's eye, his face paled and his jaw snapped shut. “You're serious. Oh my god, you're serious.” Dean slumped back, his face the epitome of shock.

“Yeah. What happened, or what's going to happen, I guess, is Sam's going to take baby you back in time and leave you with your grandparents. Unless, of course, Sam would like to screw up the timeline beyond repair.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Sam looked near tears. Gabe was starting to cry. Dean was clutching his brothe- his fath- _Sam's_ shoulder. Gabriel was glad that Castiel wasn't here to screw this up.

“You ready to go Sam?” Gabriel asked. Sam was truly starting to tear up now. He wanted to shout, to clutch Gabe closer to his chest and refuse to take any part in this, because he's done with heaven screwing around with his life.

But he couldn't. He couldn't put the world, couldn't put _Dean_ at risk. So he stood up and nodded. Gabriel gave Sam the most sympathetic look the Winchesters had ever seen on him, and pressed two fingers to Sam's forehead.

~o0o~

Sam opened his eyes and found himself standing on the front porch of his old house in Lawrence. It was in the wee hours of the morning, and Gabriel was nowhere to be seen, though Sam suspected he was standing around invisible somewhere to observe the... transaction. Gabe... Dean... his son whimpered and squirmed in his arms. Time travel couldn't have been a fun experience for him.

Gulping, Sam knocked on the door. A minute later, the door was opened to reveal a younger and rather befuddled-looking John and Mary Winchester. Sam froze. Any plan of action he may have had disappeared. What was he supposed to do, to say? He was a strange, 6' 4” man with long hair holding a baby on their doorstep at 3 AM. And now he was tearing up again. Crap.

“Um... hey, I, uh... I'm Sam,” He said. His mother gaped at him, and his father had the same look on his face he always had just before he started shooting. Sam decided he needed to wrap this up quickly, no matter how much it may hurt. “Look, I know this... probably isn't the best time, but, uh...” This wasn't going well. Sam shifted his son a bit so that the younger versions of his parents could see him better.

“My wife is dead,” He said as he finally started to cry, “And my life...I'm just not the best person to take care of my son.” He threw a meaningful look at Mary, hoping that, she being a former hunter, his message would be received. She seemed to understand. “I don't really know you, and you don't really know me,” yet, “but I've seen you around town and you seem like good people, and my son needs a family, so if you could maybe be that for him...?” Sam trailed off, there was nothing more to say.

John hung back a bit, but whatever he had been reaching for seemed relatively forgotten, so that was a plus. Mary simply nodded, and lifted the sniffling baby from Sam's arms. She patted his arm comfortingly, and Sam nodded back. “Thank you,” he whispered. Mary's eyes were starting to mist over a bit as well. Sam turned to leave.

“What's his name?” Mary called. Sam turned around.

“Dean. His name is Dean,” he managed to choke out. Mary gave a watery smile and retreated from the front porch. John closed the front door behind her, an extremely bemused look on his face. Gabriel reappeared next to Sam, and wordlessly took him back to the bunker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, let me rip your heart out and light it on fire for you. I'm sorry to say that I'm not at all sorry about this, but don't worry, the chapters after this one are all crack and Papa Moose Sam.


End file.
